X-Message-Number: 908 Date: 17 Jun 92 01:01:28 EDT From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Re: cryonics: #904 - #907 Hi David: I agree with you that the booklet needs revision. ON THE OTHER HAND, that's likely to always be true. Some other points: it seems to me very hard to explain cryonics at all without giving some "idiosyncratic" opinions and statements. The comments about "aging", of course, explicitly or implicitly distinguish the present symptoms of age (which involve degeneration) from the simple passage of time. Since "aging" in the sense of the passage of time is very closely linked in the popular mind with "aging" in the sense of degeneration, our purpose can't even be discussed without distinguishing the two. Furthermore, I believe your comments confuse two different uses of lang- uage: both communication and exhortation. True, property comes from a generally understood social "contract" (not really: even animals have territories, and the roots of property are almost certainly much deeper than any social agreement). But then, how do people ordinarily argue when they want such arrangements CHANGED? If we had never done anything but accept the language and arrangements of society, we wouldn't have even reached the farming stage, much less industrialization, computerization, and so on. Finally, as to the photographs of freezing damage, there is a "half-full or half-empty" problem. Whatever is meant by "massive" damage, I don't see it there. "Damage", certainly --- but the words "massive damage" evoke in me that thought of "irreparability", which I very much do NOT see. Best and long life Thomas Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=908